Orange County Sour at Brü Grill & Market, Our Drink of the Week

​Apart from being a wine store, beer pourer, and restaurant, Brü Grill & Market is also one of the few establishments on Lake Forest's El Toro Rd. not ruled by some distant corporate overlord. As such, it's the only place I know of in this bedroom town that has the cojones to do beer can chicken the right way and alcohol-lace just about everything on the menu. If gulping down one of their raw oysters burns like you're also taking a shot of hooch, it's because the bivalves are actually splashed with vodka.

As expected, the mixed drinks are potent creatures. What just about
everyone gravitates to, if they're not already sipping a local beer
sampler, is a drink called the Orange County Sour. I did because
like everyone else, I'm also a sucker for dishes and drinks named in honor of something local.

Never mind that the only citrus fruits involved are grapefruit and lime.
It employs an orange slice simply as garnish. But with a few drops of
bitters and thanks to that grapefruit, the drink is one of those
palate-cleansers, biting enough to cut through all the rich food. The
liquor that powers the acerbity is blanco tequila and the froth that
floats above the liquid like some bizarre cloud is actually meringue
built from foamed egg whites. It won't remind you of OC as much as it will
recall memories of Orange Julius before they stopped using raw eggs.

No offence, but who gives a rat's-A$$ about the booze at this place! Bru Grill has fantastic high-quality FOOD!!!! (does that matter anymore????) Let me put it this way... after a few cocktails, ANY restaurant’s food taste great! Does ANYONE really care to eat good food without being inebriated before you take the first bite?80% of the restaurants in OC would FAIL if they didn’t have such LUSHES as patrons! You could serve dog-food to most of these alcoholics, and they would gobble it up like it was French pate, and turn around the next day and write a five-star review on Yelp!

Patience is a virtue, which will compliment itself when you take a sip of this curious libation. Keep in mind the cocktail does take some time to prepare to ensure that the bizarre, floating cloud of froth reaches it right consistency! Cheers kids, see you at Bru!